April is Hopping By

Good grief, this month is hopping by - see how high I can hop these days!. Apologies for the delay in posting. You'll be happy to know Mother Nature appears to have figured things out and we think we're done with snow; we've even attempted shorts a few times in the past few weeks! Related to that, we decided to have a "park-a-thon." What's a park-a-thon you ask? Well, it's when we go to as many parks as we can in one week...also known as total awesomeness. We hit ten different parks in six days with more than a dozen friends, always staying for a minimum of three hours at each park. What about Gates? Lucky for me God gave a cool little brother. He loves parks. His favorite things are going down the slide on his belly, swinging, and eating bark chips and grass. I've tried to explain to him that bark chips and grass taste gross but, as my mom points out, he's never had ice cream so he has little to compare them to. For all he knows, bark chips and grass ARE ice cream!

Tee ball has begun. And by "begun" I mean it started based on the calendar date but that every
practice and game has been rained out so far. Not to worry, I'm super excited about my team, The Storm. And when I say the team name, I like to say it like I'm announcing a scary sci-fi movie title, "The Storm," it makes our team seem really tough. Thanks to my Nana and PopPop who gave me a new tee ball set, I've been able to practice in my yard.

We did get to participate in opening day and wear our uniforms; that was cool. My mom said she had a surreal moment at the ball field when she was sitting in the stands with Gates as the different teams began to parade by and over the loud speaker they started playing John Fogerty's song "Centerfield." This was the song her favorite coach, Gary Gates - who Gates is named after - would play 25 years ago as her softball team warmed up before each game. She said she felt like Gary was there just enjoying the moment with her - watching HER son start his baseball career. Pretty neat.

Our buddies, the Bormans, came to town from California for their spring break. Amy, their mom, and my mom drove across the country together 20 years ago when my mom moved to DC. They were trying to tell us how they used paper maps with highlighted routes to make the trip - I think they drove by some dinosaurs too. Anyway, you know it's fun when us kids never got to bed before 10pm at night...Parrrr-tay! We visited the sites and played nonstop.

Lastly, I should probably let you know the preschool influence has finally infiltrated our home and I have gone bonkers for anything related to superheroes. It doesn't matter that I have never seen any superhero cartoons, movies, or comic strips. Nor does it matter that my only real exposure to them is the theme songs on YouTube and through recent library book loaners. What matters is I have more superhero t-shirts than anyone in my class...and I can sing "Du nu nu nu nu nu nu nu, du nu nu nu nu nu nu nu nu, BATMAN!" louder than any of my friends.